Merseyrail staff will go on strike next month over plans for driver-only trains.
The Rail and Maritime Transport union (RMT) have confirmed that the network’s 220 train guards voted overwhelmingly to stage a walkout on March 13.
Almost 94 per cent of RMT’s Merseyrail workers backed plans to strike as well as refusing indefinitely to work on any designated rest days from March 7.
Travel bosses are planning to introduce the driver-only operated trains by 2020 as part of a £460 million overhaul of the Merseyside region’s rail network.
RMT General secretary Mick Cash said: “This ballot result sends out the clearest possible message to Merseyrail, Merseytravel and politicians across the area.
“That RMT is prepared to stand up and fight for public safety and the guard guarantee.
“The company now has the best part of two weeks to sit down with us, address the core issues at the heart of this dispute and negotiate a settlement before the action commences.
“The union’s position on Driver Only Operation is perfectly clear. We will not agree to any introduction of DOO and will fight to retain the safety critical role of the guard and to keep a guard on the train.
“It is the failure of Merseyrail to give guarantees on those basic principles that has led to the current dispute and the campaign of industrial action.
“RMT asked Merseyrail to give the union assurances that any new trains will have a second safety critical crew member on board and that the guard will be retained on all services.
“We set out clear deadlines giving the company ample time to give those assurances but the company have flatly refused to consider a guarantee of a second safety critical person on the new trains.”